St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-17

Henrik Arnold ThanlOv Wergeland
was born at ChriStianSSand in 1908, and
was the son of political pamphleteer,
who attained some prominence in the
ranks of the popular party. The father
was one of the original members of the
StTothing, and consequently the earliest
years of the poet were spent at EidS-
void, in the very center of all the tur-
MOL of inexperienced craftsmanship.
"Eidsvold was the vortex" says Edmund
w. Gosse, Into which the bombaSt and
false sentiment of the nation naturally
descended, and it is impossible to doubt
that the scenes of his boyhOOd distinctly
infused into Wergeland's nature that
strong political bias that he never
afterwards threw Off" BY and by
the lad went up to the univer-
sity of ChriStiania, and entered heart
and soul into the capriceS of student
life. 1t was about this time that he fell
in love with young lady, whom he had
seen once only, and that in the street.
He named her Stella, and being unable
to find her address, wrote daily a letter
to her, tore it up and threw it out of the
window. His landlady remarked, how
ever, that the apple-blOssomed and fam
bOyant youth was falling early that
year This ideal love for Stella"
says Edward w. GOsse, who relates the
v.
he began to verSify, and soon, forgetting
Stella, worShiped still less tangible
but more important mistress, the Muse
Thalia herself"
THE FIRST WORK
published by the afterwards eminent
poet was "Ah," farce, and soon he
wrote a great number of farces in quick
succession. Now that Wergeland him
self did not prize these tritles very high
would seem from his publishing them
under an Arabic pseudonym, ''Siful ST.
fadda.''
In 1880 he published ''Skabelsen Men
neSket og MesiaS'' c'The Creation Man
and the MeSsiah.'0 drama of gigantic
proportions. This portentiOus poem,"
says GosSe, whom we again quote,
"caused great diversion among the poet
enemies, and was the actual cause of an
attack upon him, which ultimately di-
yided the nation into two camps and
revolutioniZed the literature of Nor
way. Wergeland is the soul in all
Syttendemai demonstrations, be it in
Norway or America; he is the 'NOrges
Dpmring' of J. S. Welhaven. In
late years misfortunes fell upon
Wergeland in ever increasing severity.
One bv one the lights all faded out of
his life and left it wan and bare. First
of all he lost an official position. The
king Karl johann in a moment of within
deprived him of this office. Other sor-
rows followed. Shattered in body and
estate. forsaken and misjudged by his
countrymen, it might have been eX-
pected that the mind of the man would
have been depressed and weakened, but
it was not so. In poem of this very
time, he says:
my house and ground,
NV horse and hound,
Have passed away and are not found;
But something yet within me lies
That law and lawyers touch defes.'
And it was just at this very time, when
I've was bowed down with adversely. that
TIE singing faculties in him burst forth
with unprecedented vigor. The last five
years of his life saw his genius scatter
all the clouds and vaporS that ell
wrGpped it. At last, on July ~, 1S45,
as lis wife stood watching him, his eyes
opened, and he said to her: II was
dreaming so sweetly; / dreamt / was
lying in my mothers arms" and so he
sighed away his breath. His funeral,
SAYS Ciosse, was like that of a prince or
great general; all shops were shut, the